Buddy Garden

Wordless Wednesday – Oxalis Velvet Sunset

BuddyGarden — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 22:23:42 +0000

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Hens and chicks and flowers

BuddyGarden — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 22:16:13 +0000

This is a hardy Sempervivum perennial which can be left outside in zone 6 area. It's been through snowstorm and hot & humid weather. It is extremely hardy and look what it rewards me this year. The flowers are not super pretty but I was surprised to it bloom. The other two are succulents I added this year and they are also easy to maintain. Just make sure they're in full sun, and just water a little bit when it's dry.

Summer container recipe

BuddyGarden — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 17:03:34 +0000

Decided to go easy this year and planted two of these flower boxes.

A - Phlox Intensia™ White

B - Calitunia™ Purple

C - Calitunia™ Purple

D - Ipomoea 'Sweet Caroline™ Purple'

E - Supertunia® Vista Bubblegum

F - Dichondra 'Silver Falls'

Herb garden in a cereal box

BuddyGarden — Sun, 16 May 2010 19:33:45 +0000

I love gardening projects, especially the ones that calls for recycled materials! I picked up this herb garden kit from the annual 2010 NYC Grows. The kit includes everything you need to build a beginner herb garden. However you don't necessary need the kit to build your herb garden. The only thing you really need to buy are the seeds, you probably have the rest of the materials in your kitchen. Next time when you finish a box of cereal, save the box and the plastic bag and you can build your own herb garden!

Materials

1 empty cereal box (don't throw away the cereal plastic bag)
1 Parsley seeds
1 Basil seeds
4-5 cups of container soil
Tape (or glue gun)
Scissors (or razor blade)

Instructions

1. Remove the plastic cereal bag from the cereal box and set aside.

2. Use a hot glue gun (or tape) to seal both ends of the box. If you are using glue, make sure the glue is cooled before proceeding.

3. Laying the box flat, use scissors (or razor blade) to cut the front panel of the box. Leave a 1/2 inch edge around the box. I didn't leave 1/2 inch edge all around so I had to tie a string around it to keep the box in its shape.

4. Cut out the center of one side of the plastic cereal bag and place it in the box as liner.

5. Pour soil into the plastic lined cereal box.

6. Plant basil and parsley seeds according to the seed packet instructions.

7. Water according to the seed instructions. Put a tray underneath the box to catch any water that drains out. Overtime the box will warp from watering.

8. After the seeds have developed two sets of leaves, it's time to transplant it to a larger container.

Enjoy your container herb garden made from a cereal box!

Bathroom plants

BuddyGarden — Mon, 03 May 2010 13:00:54 +0000

Do you have plants that will only survive in the bathroom? Plants that love the humidity and the warmth from your showers? There's a skylight in the bathroom and it is the brightest room in my house. Normally I don't put plants in the bathroom but plants that love the bright daylight and humidity loves it. So what kind of plants do you keep in your bathroom? Here's mine:

Orchid (Phalaenopsis)

Below is a popular plant but I forgot what it is called. It has such cool behavior. It closes up at night and opens up during the day. Love plants that have this kind of characteristic. This plant didn't do well in the living room and I was about to throw it out. After I moved it to the bathroom, it took off and never stopped growing, as you can see new shoots are still coming out.

Night (left), Day (right)

2010 NYC Grows report

BuddyGarden — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 00:40:38 +0000

I debated whether or not to go in the rain because walking around Manhattan with an umbrella is no fun! Since I've been waiting for this for so long, I don't want to regret it afterwards. So I put on my blue polka dot rain boots, umbrella in my hand and hit the city! I already had plans in case the show was no good, I was going to just hang out at Max Brenner (a chocolate theme restaurant near Union Square) and go shopping afterwards.

I got there not expecting much because of last year's disappointment. As I got closer to Union Square I saw tents and thinking that's a good sign, at least they were prepared for the rain. I entered the show from the side and immediately saw many sponsor booths, gardening and cooking demonstrations, nicely decorated mini-gardens. They had big sponsors like Whole Foods, Organic Valley, Toyota, and woollypocket (will talk about this later, pretty cool stuff). I spent a couple of hours there and got a lot of goodies.

I had mixed feelings after the show. Every year I feel like this event is driven by sponsors and those sponsors are not always gardening related. I had a good time at the show but walking away wishing there would be more gardening related demonstrations or workshops, etc. I still remember when Target was the sponsor, they had more gardening related activities. Having said that, I think they did a fantastic job and if I were to pick the best booth, it would be the Organic Gardening magazine.

2010 NYC Grows

You see all the beautiful vertical garden? It's the first time I've seen such a big display of vertical garden and I have to say it's pretty impressive. It's called the woollypockets. I don't know if you can see in the picture above the hot chocolate, there's a small tree in the bottom 'pocket'. I was tempted to buy one at the booth, but I thought it was too expensive and I wasn't sure if it's going to work. I think it's great for people who live in apartments or condos who have limited gardening space.

2010 NYC Grows

BuddyGarden — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:23:28 +0000

The annual NYC Grows is coming up on Sunday April 25, from 10am to 4pm. I've been to this festival two years in a row and the first year was a lot of fun. I remember coming home with a lot of free goodies and plants. I also enjoyed the different gardening demonstrations and had fun talking to other gardeners. They even had a container gardening session which I enjoyed a lot. Last year's festival was just okay, I was kind of disappointed because there were only a few booths, no gardening demonstrations and no goodies. I had a feeling it was due to the bad economy and lack of big sponsors. I'm hoping this year will be as good as the first year and I hope the weather will cooperate! I'll see you there!

NYC Grows
Sunday, April 25, 10AM - 4PM
Union Square Park View Map
Manhattan, NY
Event website

Can’t wait for spring

BuddyGarden — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:26:14 +0000

The sun is out and the temperature will get up to 58F today. Days are getting longer and it sure feels like spring! I really can't wait, the gardener in me can't wait to come out.

Back in December I wrote a post about forcing paperwhites and I realized I never came back and post the updates. The paperwhites did really well but nothing really happened with the Amaryllis. The Amaryllis just kept growing long green leaves but the flower stalk I was waiting for never came out.

Paperwhites are fool-proof and it's great if you're looking for some blooms during the winter months. I grew the paperwhites in a tall narrow pot but I think next year I'll look for a wider and shorter pot so I can put more bulbs in it. Paperwhites look great when planted in groups.

Beautiful New York winter

BuddyGarden — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:35:45 +0000

It's been quiet on the gardening front but last week New York got slammed by a snow storm and it turned into a winter wonderland. We took advantage of the fresh snow and went skiing at the Catskills for the weekend. Catskills is about 2 hours north of NYC. Up in the Catskills, they had over 7 feet of snow in 4 days. I've never seen anything like it. Many people are still out of electricity and there were a lot of down trees. We have a little bamboo forest at my work campus and it was destroyed by the snowstorm, I kinda felt bad because it's been there for a long time and it really isn't something you can rebuild. I wonder if this is an indication of a really warm summer?

My deck.

Skiing at Hunter Mountain.

Near Kaaterskill Falls.

Ice climbing.

Forcing bulbs- Paperwhites (Narcissus)

BuddyGarden — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:27:16 +0000

Woo-hoo! Winter Solstice is here, longer days of sun here we come! Today is the shortest day of the year, which means we have the shortest daylight and the longest night of the year. On the bright side this means after today the days will gradually be longer. I'm counting down to the longest day of the year (15 hours of sunlight!) which arrives on June 21, 2010.

Previous post I talked about forcing Amaryllis bulb in container. BJ's sells this gift pack which includes one Amaryllis bulb and five Narcissus bulbs for under US$20. The bulbs look healthy but don't expect these to be high quality bulbs from nurseries but if you just want to have some blooms for the holidays this might be the cost-effective way to go.

Box comes with a nice green ceramic pot, one dehydrated coco peat, and five paperwhites 'Ziva' bulbs.

Follow the instructions from the previous to hydrate the coco peat and fill half of the pot.

Paperwhites don't mind to be in a small pot and the bulbs can touch each other. Just remember to keep the soil moist and not wet. Oh and they like bright light too!

Did you know you can add vodka or gin when you water to stunt their growth? Now that's something I want to try! Take a look at the gorgeous paperwhites from Flat Bottom Flowers.